Kern

Story of the Siege Enders: Part 2

At the end of the last session we had just stopped the first wave of manticores sieging Avgard with the help of our shadow dragon mounts. In the distance more manticores and lizard folk can be seen moving towards us

-We take a moment to regroup and realign ourselves against Avgard’s outer wall with the archers up top. As the manticores get closer it appears that some have multiple riders. There are 4 manticores, two of which have 4 passengers each. Brekahn and Salemar focus one of the manticores carrying 4 lizard folk, but are both stuck with manticore spines. The single rider manticores continue to fire bolts of acid, one fires a splash of colorful rays at Geoffrei blinding him.

-A loud hissing sound can be heard from the forest as a block humanoid shape with a large blade emerges from the surrounding forest. The manticores with 4 rides move towards the top of the wall tossing weapons at the archer’s, killing one. Geoffrei pulls one rider off him mount and he suffers a painful death smashed on the ground. The black humanoid spirit reaches out towards The Doctor, he becomes smoky and incorporeal as he looses vision of everyone except the specter.

-The battle weighs a heavy toll on our mounts. Salemar’s sustains heavy damage from the spears and it dissipates, he floats down to the ground in the center of a group of lizard folk. What is now a thick shower of javelins fly at Geoffrei but he sustains very little damage. In the distance more manticores and platoons can be seen approaching. After defying all the attempts of the lizard folk, Geoffrei remains strong mocking the army’s attempts. They instead focus their efforts on his dragon, which dissipates leaving him surrounded by a plethora of enemies. But yet again he denies them purchase as he leaps over them all, easily clearing the distance from the trees towards the wall. The ground forces hang back at the tree line attacking Geoffrei at the base of the wall until he blasts up it and onto The Doctor’s mount.

-The archers have now retreated behind the wall after receiving orders to withdraw and defend the inner city. We all regroup at the top of the battlements, with only a few surviving mounts a few of us have to share. Above the trees more manticores approach…

Story of the Siege Enders: Part 1

At the end of the last session we had just finished dispatching a small platoon of lizard folk on the way to the font outside of Avgard. Once we arrived there, we summoned some shadow dragons which would hopefully enable us to stall the dragon army long enough for the people of Avgard to escape.

-Whatever presence that had been unleashed at the font and alerted the surrounding forces had faded from concluding the ritual.. We mount the dragons and hover just above the trees, we can see the archers stationed at Avgard lined up on the battlements. Looking around we also notice some areas that have been cleared of trees to towards the West; specks of red light coming from what we can only assume is campfires and judging from the number, it appears to be quite a large force. Gliding along, we decide to head to the nearest campfire, we see a number of lizard folk sitting around a fire, they seem fairly relaxed. We decide to jump them even though we judge at this distance the archers will be unable to assist us.

-Brekahn leads the charge against 6 lizard folk, all of whom appear to be grunts (no leader). She and Salemar charge one of the lizard folk and bloody him off the hop. Geoffrei follows after and cleaves the guy in half. The Doctor charges a new target, his dragon takes a bite out of a different enemy. Searos follows the rear and unleashes and flurry of daggers at the remaining 5 reptiles. We slay 2 more, one heavily wounded lizard folk takes off yelling for help. We manage to finish all of them, but there is a definite stirring around us.

-We take flight once more among the trees. Off to the North-West some shapes with bat like wings whip quickly in our direction. We move towards a clearing hoping to draw them into the range of the archers, we line ourselves at the tree line next near Avgard. The shapes fan out before converging towards us for a 3 pronged attack. As they approach we can see that they are more lizard folk, except they are riding what appears to be lions with bat wings and spiked tails, called manticores. In addition, the riders seem to be covered with a reflective liquid as they carry a rod attached to the manticore’s neck.

-They surge forward simultaneously, the manticores retaliate our attacks with a whip of it’s spiked tail while the riders launch globules of green acid. A volley of arrows rain down at the manticores from our archer allies. We slay one of the manticores, causing it’s rider to plummet to his doom. The sound of horns grows louder and there are trashing sounds through the forest as a series of spears fly at us. The number of spears thrown in our direction continue to increase as torches amass in the background. Four more manicore shapes take flight in the distance, larger numbers mobilizing towards us. Even some larger figures wearing feathered headdresses can be seen among the regular lizard folk.

Shadow Dragons GET!

At the end of last session we had just stolen a magical blue box from the Avgard mage’s guild and traded Marek a decoy version of the box in exchange for a scroll which would allow us to better protect Avgard from the approaching dragon siege. The ritual can be empowered with the use of a font located just outside Avgard.

- We leave Avgard at the North-Eastern side of town heading towards the location Marek described to us. Geoffrei hears scraping sounds and tremors to the south, which we decide to follow but we’re unable to find anything as the sound seems to stop when stop to listen for it. Soon after Geoffrei notices a vague silhouette of a lizard folk as an explosion of colors blasts out at him from our surroundings. The skin of the lizard folk appear to meld with the backdrop of the forest similar to a chameleon.

-They pull out bronze daggers dripping with a liquid which sizzles as it drips on the ground. A lizard fold channeller appears and begins to mumble as the ground starts to shift and shake. A second set of rumbling explodes from the ground as another channeller emerges from behind some bushes. Striking at the dagger wielding reptiles cause them to vanish into the surroundings. The last lizard folk burrows away underground and does not reappear.

-Searos signals to the archers stationed at the Avgard battlements as Geoffrei sprints to catch The Doctor’s horse who fled after being wounded in combat. The archers shoot an arrow in our direction with a letter attached to it, the message tells us that they’re continuing the evacuation. We rest for a moment then continue quickly towards the font.

-Doctor leads on through the trees in the dark until we eventually come upon a clearing where some trees had been felled. This appears to match the location that Marek described to us, so we dismount and approach a pile of rocks in the middle of the clearing. We scan the perimeter and set up some sunrods behind some trees as we investigate the pile. They pile has a nauseating feel to it, even with the sunrods set up there is no light penetrating through the rocks. Scord determines the ritual is a modified version of a shadow steed ritual, and that a certain amount of life force would need to be sacrificed in order to complete the ritual.

-The Doctor begins the ritual, with Geoffrei willingly contributing his vitality to the ritual and Salemar praying to Bahamut for assistance, as he does this the right side of Salemar’s face begins to heat up and the darkened scales begin to crispin. Tendrils leak out from the stones as they turn black, they reach out towards Geoffrei but he is able to endure their touch. The sapphire cube releases a mist which diffuses some of the black energy.

-Flapping of wings can be heard from the surroundings as a cloud builds up above the clearing, 5 dragons coalesce and swoop down from the smoke. The rocks of the font fade dramatically as they appear to be depleted. The Doctor senses that the mounts will expire within 24 hours. We rise upon the dragons and take off, fearing the ritual may have drawn the attention of our enemies.

Grand Theft Box

At the end of the last session we had found Chiswik and the head mistress in the port and had just been ambushed by a beholder. Killing the beholder opened up a teleportation circle returning us back to the mages academy.

-We quickly grab Chiswik and the head mistress and move through the teleportation circle. On the other side we find ourselves in an identical square shaped room. The Doctor checks on the two mages; they both still seem to be in rough shape, although they no longer appear to be struggling with any mental presence.

-Shortly after the head mistress regain consciousness, she is disoriented, we take a moment to explain what happened. Meanwhile spell sword guards file out through an open door. Among them is the guard who first escorted us through the academy premises, he congratulates us for rescuing the arch mage and agrees to bring us to retrieve a package left for us.

-The spell swords summon a floating disk and place Chiswik on it. Meanwhile the guard leads us to the center of the guild where an aid fetches a crate with a rune on it. Touching the rune exposes a list of names belonging to members of the party.

-The crate is nailed together, opening it we find a bag of holding, a sheet of paper with a ‘P’ on it, and also a necklace. The necklace appears to be the third piece of the relics we had been missing. Searos’s cloak and Scord’s necklace are drawn towards it.

-But first Geoffrei reads the note: “Hey guys, sorry for not giving you this. Wasn’t the right time. Hope it’s useful. -P”. Scord heats the paper on a hunch that there may be something else to the note. But she does not find anything out of the ordinary.

-Now that we have rescued the Arch mage, we make plans to visit his chambers to investigate the whereabouts of the mysterious box Marek was interested in. A guide leads us to the living quarters over to a chamber with spell guards on either side of the door.

-We convince the guards to allow us to enter in order to examine the arch mage’s condition. The room is fairly large, many bookcases, a large desk and on a bed in the corner is Chiswik lying there with clerics and mages surrounding him.

-The archmage hasn’t regained consciousness yet, and there is no sign of any box. We decide to leave and go ask the head mistress if she would know anything about the box. Meanwhile Brekahn leaves the room and readies a disguise to infiltrate the guild in search for the box.

-The head mistress tells us about a box, but she doesn’t know what it contains as there were strong powers that prevented any divination. She explains that on one occasion someone tried to take the box. At our request, she agrees to have an assistant create a decoy box for us.

-We head out to a store near the arcane university, when Brekahn reappears with the blue box and hands it over to The Doctor. In the shop, the merchant offers to convert our extra magical items into residual. We break down a few items, then wander around town towards the blacksmith and sell some mundane items (daggers, etc…).

-Next we head over to the inn to get some rest for the night, Searos leaves the inn at night to meet someone about the location of his grandfather. In the morning there are screams and panic as the inn is on fire! The fire appears to be originating from Scord’s room, where she is nowhere to be seen. On the wall there is a symbol representing one of the devil’s of the nine hells.

-The Doctor fetches his horse from the stables next to the inn and notifies some of the cleric who pray to contain the unholy fire and prevent it from spreading. They succeed, but the inn lies in ashes leaving the owner devastated.

-We head over to the head mistress’ office where there is an apprentice concentrating. She is extremely upset as she offers us the duplicate box, explaining an imposter made off with the real box disguised as the head mistress herself.

-Suddenly all three relics pull themselves together merging into a disk. Glowing a golden hue
they split into three different wedges. The head mistress is very confused at this, we take some time to explain some of what is going on. The Doctor says he had a feeling drawing him South-West when the relics joined.

-On the way to the church of Neratha to rendezvous with Merrick. We stop to perform the cure disease ritual who had been suffering from a sickness contracted in our time in the portal. We enter the temple afterwards but don’t see Marek until we enter the courtyard where we meet Marek with the same two guards he has with him earlier as ambassador Jerikar. He explains how the guild master had stole the box from a mage in a rival college, and the power of the box was not important to him only the emotions it had brought out between the two colleges.

-Marek pulls out a scroll and explains how it can be used to create shadowy mounts we can ride and repel the dragon legion’s siege. The ritual requires us to leave town a little ways and access a magical font in order to lengthen the effects of the spell.

-We conclude our business with Marek then head to the commander to inform him of our plans. On the battlements we find a grizzled man, and ask that he position forces at the north eastern section of the wall to cover us as we use the ritual to stall the army as the townspeople retreat to the south. The commander agrees and would have the mages send a flare when the town has finished evacuating.

Battling a Beholder

At the end of the last session we found ourselves wondering around a strange world after entering a portal at the Avgard mage’s guild. Searos and The Doctor had been separated from the group shortly upon entering. During our search for the mage’s headmaster Chiswick we now approach a fork in the road, coming from of the paths is the sound of foot steps which belong to Searos and The Doctor as they turn the corner.

-We finally meet back together after being separated in the portal. Moving back to the fork, the pathway shifts different colors one for each path. We head down the path colored purple, feeling a slight chill. 50 feet down red and purple patterns appear, and we eventually see a large stone doorway at the end of the path. The strange murmuring sound around us increases. Geoffrei hears sounds of dripping on the other side of the door. On the other side we find a small chamber stretched out. The source of the dripping is coming from a body floating and bobbing against the ceiling. A section of the wall is disjointed with a handle on it.

-Brekahn manages to catch the corpse with a rope and pulls it towards us. Upon examination we find it appears to have multiple claw marks and lesions long festered. After Searos takes a belt inscribed with runes from the body we continue to move through the room. The floor in this room seems to give in when stepped requiring more effort then normal the traverse the chamber. In the room we find an offset door which opens into a hallway that tapers off into a larger room. The hallways suddenly becomes shadowy, there is a growing mist carrying a thick unpleasant odor with it and a sense of dread emanating from the room at the end of the hallway.

-Moving closer to the room at the end of the hall it is shaped like a large square. Crying can be heard in the back of the room coming from a woman crouched over a body wearing fine robes. Along the back wall there are two reverberating columns emitting an aura of dread as they flicker red. There is a cloud of thicker smoke covering up a runic circle. The murmuring sound that had continued up to this point begins to fade.

-The female shakes her head repeating “All is lost… All is lost…”. We recognize her a the mage’s guild headmistress and the body on the floor looks like Chiswick, the guild Arch mage. His eyes are blank as if he is battling some presence within his mind. Chiswik screams and his arms slump down. The Doctor prepares the reagents necessary for a cleanse disease ritual believing that it will help revive him. Using the sapphire cube, which creates a mist around Chiswik and The Doctor, Geoffrei and Scord are surrounded in mist as they assist with the ritual.

-Suddenly the murmuring starts up again, The Doctor must increase the volume of her prayers. The ritual is finally completed as Chiswik’s breathing slows to a normal rate, the ritual appears to have taken a lot of energy on his part, he now lies in a magic induced sleep.

-The entrance of the room suddenly shrinks to the size of a keyhole, floating through the wall is a beholder! The columns burst flair with a burst of energy causing the head mistress to collapse in terror. The beholder speaks something incomprehensible and the floor expands and tears, opening up rifts on the ground. Eye stalks lash out, a different ray striking each member of the party.

-Moving around the rifts we manage to fell the beholder. The runic circle that was once shrouded in mist reveals a teleportation circle.

Avgard Refugee Fever

At the end of the last session we had just got derailed on our way to Avgard by a strange possessed man. He led us to a clearing with a white light in the center. Other figures appeared all gathering around the clearing. Salemar had just struck the ground underneath one of the possessed which seemed to connect with something.

-Another human standing near where the ground was first stabbed begins to tremble violently in place. Salemar moves next to him and similarly stabs the ground but doesn’t feel anything. Standing next to the man Salemar notices his skin is pale and transparent also his eyes are completely white. The man on the ground who was first attacked stops seizing and crumbles.

-Geoffrei approaches the white light and as he gets closer he feels a faint vaccum sensation drawing him closer. Suddenly there is a sound of tearing and bursting into range is a wispy humanoid shape with smoke wings. Scord follows Geoffrei moves into the clearing, examining the strange human-elemental shape. She determines it is a variety of air elemental which cannot fly but possess the ability to launch themselves into the air temporarily. In addition, they are capable of creating violent whirlwinds and are resistant to cold.

-Geoffrei detects some movement from the other side of the clearing. A bolt of water and ice flies towards him, originating from a new humanoid shape. The projectile appears to have been a piece of the attacker that he tore off and launched. More tearing sounds are heard through the forest and three swirling clouds of darkened air move into the clearing. Figures within the maelstroms raise their hands towards Geoffrei and Scord as tight pressure is felt inside their heads. Two other wind human shapes appear as we begin combat. The air hisses as we strike out towards them.

-One of the elementals moves near the center of the clearing and begins to move more fluently through the winds that are gathering there. Brekahn feels the ground tremble as a stony humanoid figure charges at her, it appears to be an elf but with skin made of stone. Salemar hears more thudding coming from the north of the clearing.

-Winds in the center of the clearing begin to pick up, even Geoffrei is having a hard time keeping himself from being tossed up into the air. Meanwhile the elementals are jettisoned by the winds and launched towards us. Two more stone elementals appear around Salemar. Striking the rock elemental causes them to explode with a shower of clay and some of the mud sticking to all who are caught in the burst.

-As the last elemental dies the wind dies down in the center. The light is less thick now and there is a bright blue mist. Geoffrei swings his halberd at the mist and a large blue gem fragments off. Examining the fragment, it doesn’t hold any residual power from what was earlier conjuring strong winds, it appears to be a piece of sapphire. Reaching inside the mist feels cool, a larger cut sapphire is found and now in The Doctor’s possession.

-Geoffrei tries to see if he can detect the signal we told Kilan to give if there was danger, but there is no signal. We head back towards the camp, all the civilians are there and Kilan is crouched behind a bush and steps out when he sees us return. He report that it had been quiet, and we explain how we failed to find the source of the beating wings. We sleep at camp for the night and it passes by uneventfully. At morning Scord sets up an object reading ritual for the recovered sapphire.

-A clear fog is suspended above the gem during the ritual. The blank gray fog takes the shape of a hooded face poised over the sapphire, the hood is moved back and reveals Merrik’s face. Next, we attempt to divine the sapphires purpose; we see a large number of figures who all appear to be sick, a blue square in their midst they convulse and stony and water creatures appear in their place. Next we investigate how it got there; an image of the clearing a shadow passes overhead, it appears to be a horse/eagle with a rider who places the gem on the ground an murmurs some words. The Doctor identifies this creature as a hippogriff. Next is how it was created; a long stone table with arcane implements and runes. A small pile of gemstones are on one side of the table. The sapphire is placed in the center and leylines appear as the sapphire is infused with energies. Finally how to destroy it: and image of a halberd is displayed in the mist.

Bantin: Fallen, Never to Return?

At the end of the last session we had just about finished escorting a group of refugees to Avgard when we were ambushed by a group posing as Avgard patrolmen. They had just killed Bantin when they began to attack one of their own: a female human.

-One of the enemies standing between Searos and Salemar begins to sizzle as purple smoke rises from his wounds healing them. One of the robed figures near Geoffrei screams “I give myself to the chaos!” and transforms into a grotesque demon with shimmering scales and crossed eyes. The gargoyle and other begin to focus on attacking Bantin’s relative.

-We eventually dispatch all the enemies and loot the patrol guard’s shield, along with a lodestone and a tome of rituals.

-We learn that the lodestones are enchanted with a powerful locate person spell, but it only points to one person at a time. The key phrase to utilize this is repeated in the tome but the word is in primordial tongue and we cannot pronounce it correctly.

-After looting, we take a moment to honor the memory of Bantin by constructing a grave. Then head over to the side of the road where we left the refugees. We make it back to the area they had been left but there is no one to be seen. Following their tracks south-east we finally find them, where we discover Kreskil had said he’d go up the road to the north, but we didn’t see him. We rest up for the night, set up camp, awaiting the final stretch to Avgard.

-In the night Kilan wakes Salemar saying he heard some flapping of wings to the north, no farther than a few miles. We wake up the team and ask Kilan to protect everyone while we investigate, he is hesitant but agrees. Heading towards the sound it seems to quiet down until it eventually stops, instead we now hear the sound of cracking. We spot a humanoid character leaned up against a tree.

-Brekahn (Bantin’s daughter) sneaks up and grabs the guy. The man is balding, middle aged, and his eyes are completely white. Questioning him proves difficult as he appears obviously out of his mind, “the voices told me to come here” “there are many many voices”. He eventually invites us to follow him towards the voices. We follow him south-west moving quietly, when suddenly he stops abruptly and says “the voices… can’t decide…” then begins to walk north-west “we must go this way now”.

-We begin to hear more sounds of twigs snapping when another man emerged from the trees moving towards the same point as the man we’re following. Through the trees we begin to see a glow of white light being emitted from a floating wispy cloud. The men stop at the same time, we find more figures standing around the clearing with the mist.

-Investigating the light, it appears to have some arcane presence. Scord believes it could be used as an energy source. At the moment it appears to be in the process of being tapped or released. The branches and trees all around the clearing bend unnaturally away from the clearing. Searos grabs a rock and tosses it at the center of the light and it gets projected away. Salemar steps into the clearing and is buffeted by a strong wind. Tendrils emerge from the light and reach out towards him, exiting the circle the tendrils withdraw.

-Geoffrei and Brekahn try to grab and move one of the immobile humanoids, but struggle as if the man is rooted in place. The earth begins to creep over his feet, in a panic Brekahn plunges a dagger into the man, but he still doesn’t move. Salemar attacks the ground beneath the man, the dirt shakes, pulling the sword out the man eyes begin to shudder as he collapses twitching on the ground. Simultaneously there are resounding screams from the surrounding.

Journey To Avgard

At the end of the last session we just finished rescuing a bunch of slaves from a group of fire cultists. After escorting them safely to a halfling settlement, we agreed to accompany a handful of refugees to Avgard.

-Moving along a forest with 12 refugees along with a belligerent orc named Kreskil and a human named Kilan. We had just finished setting up camp and were now heading east/north-east towards Avgard.

-In the distance, Geoffrei spots a few trees in the distance which were covered in spider webs. We keep a safe distance to avoid attracting anything as we travel a bit further before setting up camp again for the night. Thankfully, the night passes uneventfully.

-We get everyone up and begin moving again. By mid morning Geoffrei hears some coughing in the distance. We move forward to investigate while Salemar remains with the refugees. Laying on the ground is a wounded human, his skin is glistening and he is coughing up a blue liquid. In between fits of coughing he warns us to stay away from the sickness, how Avgard’s refugee camps were forced out because of it. Bantin puts the man out of his misery.

-We return to the group and decide to move to Avgard anyway heading east towards the main road. Soon we meet a river flowing south, we tie a rope to either side and slowly move everyone across safely. We continue through the forest and finally reach the road where we begin to move north past the crossroad to Tharg-Calan, Hearthsrest and Avgard.

-Along the path Geoffrei becomes concerned that the sounds of the surrounding nature has become silent. We move off the path slightly to avoid any traps, while Searos scouts ahead. He finds someone on a horse waiting by the road, his tabard indicated he was from Avgard. After returning to the group and reporting his findings, Searos convinces Kreskil to stay with the refugees while we confront the guard.

-The guard seems to recognize us when we approach. He explains how we are needed to return to Avgard to help as a sickness is rampaging through the town. We explain how we have a few civilians to return to Avgard and we need to return to bring them along. The Doctor convinces the guard to lend him his tan colored horse.

-Searos remaining hidden this whole time the group returns to retrieve the refugees. When out of sight the Avgard patrolman begins to bolt it down the path towards Avgard. Surprised by this, Searos springs from his hiding spot, readies a prepared lasso, and calls out to the guard. The patrolman curses and takes out his sword and shield and begins to bang them together.

-Rustling from the surrounding bushes a robed figure holding an orb and a lodestone steps onto the path, the stone begins to glows and from a file of stones a gargoyle appears and attacks Searos. Two more green robed figures appear onto the road and seem focused down the path, while two leather armored humans with strange eyes emerge.

-The Avgard guard charges Bantin, knocks him down and follows through with his sword. Two humans with short swords charge the group. Meanwhile one of the lodestones held by the robed figures begin to glow as he motions “end it”, patches of loose sand begin to shift all along the road. The gargoyle grabs Searos and takes off carrying him into the air. All enemies surround Bantin and strike him down. A green robed figure yells “Take him down!!” as they continue to strike at him until he is slain. Afterward the lodestone holder seems satisfied as the stone’s glow fades shortly but begins anew. “What! No!”, he says as another one pulls up their lodestone, and points it towards one of the humans, “She lied! She is also of the Tarmikos line! She must die!!”